The present invention relates generally to child safety apparatus, and particularly to an attachment for a playground swing making such swing suitable for use by small children.
Public playgrounds are generally designed for children in the range of 5 to 12 years old. Unfortunately, many children younger than 5 years old frequent playgrounds. Such younger children cannot use all the equipment for lack of appropriate safety features.
Since 1981, when the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a handbook for public playground safety, national and local publications have published articles, hundreds of professionals have held seminars across the country, prestigious newspapers have addressed playground safety, and national television networks have covered this important issue. These educational efforts have made the public more aware of the safety problems presented on public playgrounds. The continued level of injury and the rising number of lawsuits, however, have made clear that present solutions to playground safety are not fully adequate. Accordingly, any improvement to safety features of playground equipment should be considered an advance in the industry.
It is likely that there are as many preschoolers using playground equipment with parents in the public parks, and after school hours on school playgrounds, then children in the age range of 5 to 12 years using the playground equipment. This conclusion may be inferred from the injury data provided by CPSC. Injuries suffered on playground equipments have sent more than 237,000 children to hospital emergency rooms in 1990 alone, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C. It is estimated that twice this number of injuries go unreported. The Consumer Product Safety Commission hazard analysis shown that falls to the ground surface account for 60% of playground equipment relates injuries. A one foot fall directly on the head onto concrete or asphalt, or a four foot fall onto packed earth, can be fatal to a child.
To address the needs of the many children ages 1 through 5 who may use the playground equipment in our public playgrounds there exists a need to improve safety conditions in use of such equipment. In particular, the subject matter of the present invention concerns improvement to safety conditions in use of playground swings.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional playground swing set 10 including belt seat swings 12 and a child swing 14. Belt seat swings 12 include a belt or strap 12a connected at each end to corresponding chains 12b. For older children, e.g., 5 to 12 years old, the belt seat swings 12 are perfectly suitable for enjoyable use of swing set 10. Belt seat swings 12 do not, however, accommodate younger children. In particular, belt seat swings 12 do not provide any restraint against the child tipping forward or backward out of the swing. Accordingly, the child seat swing 14 is typically found on public playground swing sets. A child seat swing is characterized by a seat portion 14 including a backrest 14a and a belt portion 14b. Once the child is seated in the child seat swing, the belt portion 14b is attached to provide a closure about the child's upper waist with the feet hanging forward of the swing. In this manner, a small child can enjoy use of the swing set 10 without risk of falling from the child seat swing 14.
Playground swing sets include many belt seat swings 12 for older children, but typically only one or two child seat swings 14 for smaller children. With the large number of younger children wishing to use such child seat swings, however, it is typical for the parent to find all such child seat swings occupied. Accordingly, the younger children often must wait their turn to use the child seat swings. As may be appreciated by those parents having young children in the age range 1 to 5, it is often difficult for the children to remain patient while waiting for a child seat swing 14 to become available for use.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a safe alternative to the child seat swings 14 when the child seat swings 14 are not available. Such apparatus should be secure enough to provide a high degree of safety for the young child while in enjoying the swing activity.